The present disclosure relates to a printer or multifunction printing device. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to the implementation of a resource-saving, non-printing mode for use with printers and multifunction printing devices.
Copiers, printers, and other multifunction printing devices, such as devices including scanning and facsimile capabilities, are familiar in many office environments. (As used herein, all such machines will be generically called “printers.”) A printer is typically a machine having both hardware and software aspects.
It is generally known in the office equipment industry that printers may have active and inactive states. Typically, a printer will be consume more energy during an active state than an inactive state. In many cases, the warm-up time of a printer or multifunction printing device is itself a major consumer of time and energy.
Various aspects of a printer mandate that the machine undergo a distinct time period between the machine being turned on or otherwise requested to operate and the machine being ready to perform a requested task. In the case of xerographic or electrostatographic printers, before moving from an inactive state to an active state, there is typically an appreciable “warm-up” time in which a fuser is brought to a necessary temperature, and/or a charging device is brought to a necessary potential. If the printer utilizes a vacuum transport system, a vacuum blower must be turned on and any vacuum chambers must be brought to a negative pressure. Any toner applying elements may be primed, such as by emitting a small amount of toner to clean and align the applying elements. In the case of an input scanner, which may be part of a digital copier, there is typically a necessary warm-up time for an illumination lamp to reach a necessary luminescence.